Hey everyone! Just got back from the MCM Midland Comic Con. Had a great weekend there minus the really bad weather. It was a nightmare getting to Telford! Thank you for all coming by to my studio to get your photos taking, buying prints and even to those having a look around! I’m gonna start working on the photos tomorrow (Monday 17th) and aim to get them done within a week (depending how much work needs doing).

My website really needs a updating and I’m hoping to get this all sorted out soon! I’ve mainly been active on my Facebook page where it is a lot easier for me to upload photo, making updates and announcements etc. My Facebook page is www.facebook.com/AkraruPhotography

I do not have a ‘shopping’ page ready but if you wish to buy prints or other items ie keyrings etc. This will be available soon as the photo is uploaded. Items and prices can be found on ‘After Event Prices’ under the ‘Service and Price’ page.

I will be adding some photos here on my website. I know I haven’t been on much on any of my photography accounts other than my FB Page
but once I have finished all the Ayacon photos, I will be focusing on updating all my photography accounts!

Well the last Ayacon came and gone. Beautiful and yet, sad. But it was an amazing event! And encase any of you didn’t know. Ayacon held their last event last weekend and this is my 2nd time attending the event and my first time there was in 2011 but I first of Aya back in 2009 but I only discovered their existence two days before it started so there was no chance of going back then.

The photo shoot went well. Had some up and downs but it couldn’t be helped and I fully understand if it couldn’t be avoided. My flash stand fell many time due to the wind blowing it down. Luckily the flashgun survived!

Currently going through the photos but I will be selecting and editing them tomorrow! I have about over 3,300 photos which comes to about 30GB worth to pile through within a week or two. And yes, this is gonna kill me. SLOWLY. As always, I will be uploading the photos on my Facebook page first and then else where! I know I haven’t be on my website or on my dA account either but I’m planning to update on all of my photography accounts which is really overdue!

My next event I’m planning to attend is Play Expo in Manchester on Oct 12th-13th and MCM London Comic Con on October 2th-27th!

Sorry for the big delays. As I’ve already mention about it in my last post! I’ve done the first half(ish) of the Sunday’s Photo shoot batch. I’ve already uploaded them onto my Facebook page. I’ll be working on the half a.s.a.p! If you click on the image below, that will take you directly to the album!

Just got back home from London couple of hours ago and WHAT a weekend that was! Had a fantastic time there meeting friends, making new ones, being at the event and taking photos! Just transfering all the photos from my laptop and onto my main computer. No idea what the total count of how many photos I’ve taken but it is A LOT! I will probably do a small update on this post later with the grand total number of shots.

As this is just a quick small blog. I will write up a full version after I’ve finished selecting and editing photos! Which maybe a while but please bear with me, I will get them done a.s.a.p!

ok, most of you guys are probably aware of the issue that’s going around regarding MCM Expo warning photographers of ‘paid photo shoot’ activity. Yeah it kinda sucks but I’m not gonna argue about it. And tbh, I thought it was ok as long as it’s outside and the being a Dealer is only for inside the main halls. And yes, I have read their T&Cs again. The rules are there, they didn’t just make it up all of a sudden.

Do I think this is a threat or a scare tactic to photographers? That’s up to you to decide but in my opinion. No, I don’t think so. I’ve had far worst than that. Yes, they ‘may’ have my name but they should already know me any ways since I was a Dealer at the Midland Expo.

But I don’t want to get into bad terms with MCM as I mention before, I used to be a Dealer from past Expo and I know quite a few staffs there and they are brilliant guys and gals! (And I maybe planning to be a Dealer again in the near future!) So I’m gonna play this by the book!

So what does this mean? Is the photo shoot cancelled? No, I’m not gonna cancel the shoots. I’ve planned hard for this and I’m not gonna waste this and let people down! So all my photo shoots slots will be FREE! All the rules and details are still the same and still upto 1 hour per session. There are 5 slots left!! If you are interested just click on the link which goes to my dA page http://fav.me/d5fz9s0 if you have a dA account, leave a comment there of which slot you want but if you don’t have one then just message me on my FB page! (I will update details on my dA a.s.a.p!)

About a month ago, I did a photo shoot with my friend who asked me to take some photos of her looking like a doll for a competition. A doll from Koitsukihime to be precise! If you don’t know anything about Koitsukihime dolls then just do a google search of it. Though I’m not into dolls, some of them look quite amazing. Unfortunetly she did not win the competition but we still had a great time. The photos are in my ‘Photo Shoots’ Galleries or just click on the image below for a direct link!

I’ve been inactive with my photography work lately. This is mainly due to problems and busy moments in my life. I won’t go into much details about it but at the moment it’s going great now and no more worries! And I am aiming to do something at least once or twice a month on my website, Facebook page and my dA account!

My next event will be at the MCM London Comic Con Expo in October 26th – 28th! And like the last Expo, I will be doing a photo shoot booking! For more details about it, just click the link which goes to my dA account! > to my dA Journal! <

Well that’s another convention done for the weekend! It has been quite an adventure. To start off, I only had around 2 hour sleep. Went to bed around 1:20am and set my alarm to wake me up at 3:40am. Normally I would sleep a lot earlier to get ready but I didn’t get back from work till 11:30pm and I had to finish charging my last set of batteries. Had to pack all my stuff without making too much noise and then pick up my assistant, Kairi Mori.

We setted off to Lincoln from Wrexham after 5:00am but wasted over half an hour TRYING to leave Wrexham because the SatNav hasn’t been updated and there are some new roads which the SatNav doesn’t recognize. I had no idea where we were but we ended up driving through a lot of country roads and narrow roads. Went we got out of that the SatNav seemed like it was gonna take us the right looking way but only ended up going to a road which has been closed and the SatNav kept insisting to drive through the closed road. In the end I gave up listening to it and decided to head towards Chester and drive on the M56 instead. THAT was the route I thought the SatNav would take me, but it didn’t. In total, nearly an hour has been wasted.

Things was going smoothly but the M62 had a 50mph zone since there are some road works going on which I had no idea how long it went on for, that delayed our trip by about 10 minutes. While driving on the A1 Southbound (Ithink), we saw a Little Chef on the oppositie side BUT it was one of new update versions done by Heston Blumenthal! We both decided that we eat there on the way home!

I was hoping to get there around 8:00am but we eventually got there around 8:25am. Not bad timing after all that delays and detours I took. Had to check to make sure if we was at the right Church by checking their website on my mobile phone but looking inside and seeing some cosplayer around pretty much confirms that we’re at the right place. So after quick instructions from the organizers, we brought our stuff inside and setted up the studio. I drank one of those ‘power energy’ drink shots when I woke up and while I was moving some stuff around I started to feel abit slow and tired. The shot effects started to wear off but I was surprised that it did lasted around 5 hours as it said on the discription!

So after setting up the studio, I setted up the camera, laptop and printer but I had some technical issues. First I couldn’t print from Lightroom, I can send it to print but the printer doesn’t print the photo even though it has received the printing job. I was hoping to use LR since I can tether shoot (the ability to take photos and get it sent to your computer straight instantly instead of the normal way like the cardreader etc) and you can print from LR too. If you don’t understand that, just type in ‘Lightroom tethering and print’ on YouTube. Instead I had to use a tethering software and use Photoshop to print photos. To me, that’s the long way of doing the job.

After all that fixing the issues and doing some test shots. I was ready to open! But apologies for the delay..! Normally my style of studio shoot is ‘high-key’ photos (that’s having the background blown bright white/light) but due to the space needed and the time wasted in trial and error. I’ve decided to go for a 2 light setup, 1 flash light at the back to give out a nice high-lights behind the models and 1 flash light with a shoot through umbrella to light the model at the front. The results is amazing! But I wish I had a grey or black backdrop instead of white.

I’ll be going through the photos again and I will upload the photos on my website, Flickr and Facebook page a.s.a.p!

Thank you all for coming to get your photos taken. Next stop is the MCM Manchester Comic Con Expo!

On 30th June I will be setting up a studio shoot at the brand new convention Lucky Con held in Lincoln!

I will be there offering my usual service by taking excellent photos of you and/or your friends and you will also have the option to buy prints after your shoot! Printing is done very quickly and there’s no need to wait another day as it’s all done on the spot!

Prices are:

£5.00 per photo session for up to 5 people

£10.00 per photo session for 6 – 10 people

Print Prices:

{Special Prices at the event only}

8″ x 6″ print including strut mount – £6.00 per photo or £15.00 for three photos

(after the event it’s £7.00 per photo or £18.00 for three photos)

Raffle Prices:

Bronze Prize – 50p per ticket or £2.00 for 5 tickets

Silver Prize – 80p per ticket or £3.00 for 5 tickets

Gold Prize – £1.00 per ticket or £4.00 for 5 tickets

For the prizes, click the images below to see what you could win! The winner of each catagory will get a FREE print and frame!

So the MCM London Expo has come and gone nearly a month ago now. The awesome weather lasted through the weekend though I think it was a little too hot. Can’t image how the people felt that were wearing cosplay costumes that’s not suitable for roasting sunny day like fur suits, leather etc.

So I left for London on Friday. Almost had a bad start to the journey as I nearly missed my bus, luckily the bus driver checked his side mirror before taking off but soon as I sat down I realised that I forgot to bring my lunch! So I had to buy some lunch again at the City centre. I got the coach to London this time as I couldn’t afford the train tickets and I don’t have a Young Person Rail Card anymore. The tickets cost £75-147 and that’s an off-peak ticket I’ve found over 3 months in advance! While the coach cost me £18 (the maths isn’t that hard to decide which one to go for). So yeah it will take me over 5 hours to get there but I’m not spending that much to get to London!

At the Victoria Coach Station there’s a guy offering ‘luggage carrying’ service to Victoria Train Station for £5. It was my first time there and I wasn’t sure how to get there, even if it’s really close. Plus my luggage is really heavy and I’m carrying my heavy camera bag on my back. So I took the offer. Didn’t take long to get there. Went downstairs to the Underground and soon I was downstairs, someone dropped a £2 coin. I picked it up and about to return it to the guy that dropped it, he was long gone! Saw couple of elderly people who saw it as well and I asked them if they wanted it. They said no, so I kept the £2 coin!

I made a mistake of choosing to go to Tower Hill as I completely forgotten that there’s no lifts or escalators in that station. Meaning I had to lift my heavy luggage up the stairs! Note, I haven’t been to the gym for over 3 months! So I was way out of shape! But the good thing about going to Tower Hill is that I saw two of my friends waiting outside and funny enough, our coaches drove past each other AND stopped at the same service station BUT we never saw each other! They were waiting for our other friend to meet up, so I waited with them. Waited nearly an hour for him. Not impress since my hotel room mate was waiting for me. Soon as he arrived we made our way to the Expo!

I stayed at the Ramada Hotel which is next door to the Premier Inn Hotel. Really nice hotel and if you’re lucky you’ll get a view of the Dockland water. It’s my first time staying there and I was pretty impress! I didn’t realize I got a ‘disabled’ room until I checked the bathroom. I’ve had disabled rooms at the Premier Inn and Ibis Hotel. Though those two hotels have the smallest disable room compared to the Ramada Hotel. So the first thing I did soon as I walked into my hotel room? Dumped my stuff and hit the shower!

So after a nice shower, charging my phone, getting my camera gear sorted and getting my body hydrated, I made my way to the ExCel Centre! I wasn’t doing a studio shoot and I had nothing planned for Friday so it was nice to chill and not be too serious on taking photos. And hanging around with my friends for once at an Expo/Convention! I’ve been doing my studio work at the Expo and Cons. Only time I see them is when I close up but by then it only last maybe a few hours or so and I’m completely shattered!

Met up some of the gang inside and eventually the rest turned up. We split up again, some went to get changed and some of us went outside to do a photo shoot. We managed to get some good shots outside the ExCel Centre as there was a swimming event on the Saturday. They were setting up on Friday and they used up all the nice spot areas. That’s the grassy area, the trees and the railings by the docks. Apparently you’re not allowed in that area if you’re not part of the event and you will be escorted off the area. I dunno if that was true but that’s what I’ve heard. I didn’t do much on the Friday, just basically relaxing, chilling with friends and checking the area out.

Saturday started off well and the weather was scorching hot too, worn my summer clothing for the first time this year. Had 4 photo shoots that day all went well, had some minor problems and delays but nothing serious. But it was hard to find good location since part of the area is being used by another event and I had the problem with the very harsh sun light which I completely forgot to bring my reflector with me! But you gotta make do with what you got. I missed out on the Saturday masquerade has all the fatigue and tiredness kicked in 15 minutes before it started. Camera bag was too heavy which I will lighten the load next time since there were quite a lot of things I didn’t use and I didn’t wear proper shoes to support my feet.

Sunday was pretty much the same as Saturday. Nice hot sunny day, I remembered to bring my reflector, worn my gym trainers since it more better to walk around with and lighten the bag but still too heavy and didn’t use the other equipment! Photo shoots went well and the swimming event was over. So I finally got to use that area again. And I managed to go to the masquerade this time! End of the day I check all the photos out to see how it looks on a bigger screen. And I had those moments where I wish I could have done more by doing this and that etc. It’s been a while since I did a photo shoot like this. I do enjoy my studio work but I love the creativity of location shoots! After dropping my stuff back in my hotel room. Went to meet up with the others for a meal at the Foxx but had some little delay. By the time we got there they already ate so me and friend Emi went to order some food only to be told that they aren’t serving food any more. Their menu says from ‘5pm till late’ and this was around 9:30pm. Was really disappoint as I really like their chicken burgers. So we ended up going to the Indian restaurant next door. The buffet food was nice. And to end the day on a high, we saw one of our friends in the back of a police car. First reaction was ‘shocked’ and wondered what did he do but he hasn’t done anything wrong. He was just helping this kid to look for his brother (I think).

Monday went alright. Got enough sleep even though I went back to my hotel room after 2:00am! Went for breakfast downstairs to see what the food was like. The room was really empty, only 5 people including myself was there eating breakfast. The food was ok though. After packing my stuff and checking out, my coach home sets off after 5pm so I had around 6 hours to kill time. So I caught up with some of my other friends and just chilled with them outside. Made new friends and they helped me out getting to Victoria Station WITHOUT going to Tower Hill Station. This route they took me had lifts and escalators so that made my life so much easier! So many thanks to them! I kinda got lost trying to get to the station, I took the wrong turning but I got there eventually. Got back home fine but if I get the coach to London again, I’ll get the earlier coach home!